The Last of the Killer B’s

Maybe it was the barrage of the number 12 yesterday or the realization that the Houston Astros will never again be competing for a National League Central title, but I found myself feeling nostalgic the common thread that was shared between these teams, Lance Berkman.  Berkman leaves the Cardinals after spending an extremely short period of time here, and yet still it is difficult for me to think of him as anything other than an amazing player.  Could there be any higher praise from someone who spent most of his formative years wishing that Berkman would just take the day off?

Berkman spent parts of 12 seasons with the Houston Astros after being drafted in the first round in 1997.  During that time, he batted .296 and was the center of an offense that was good enough to meet the Cardinals twice in the NLCS in 2004 and 2005, series that went 7 and 6 games and ended with each team winning one pennant.  During his tenure with the Astros, he basically played an entire season against the Cardinals.  In 154 games, Berkman batted .313/.415/.601 with 39 HR’s and 118 RBI’s.  Only the Reds allowed more Berkman HR’s and RBI’s (although it was in 20 more games and in games that over the course of his career meant much less to any playoff races).  And then there was the postseason where Berkman hit .292 with 3 HR’s and 9 RBI’s over 7 games in 2004 as well as .286 with another HR and 3 RBI’s in 6 games in 2005 against the Cardinals.

With all of this destruction left in his wake, I still found myself respecting the hell out of Lance Berkman as an Astro, making the transition much easier when he signed with the Cardinals.  I know that this last season was a rough one for the Big Puma, but the truth is that his legacy as a Cardinal had already been written.  His 2011 season was enough to make me forget all of those homeruns he hit against the Cardinals for so many years in Houston.  He provided the perfect combination of veteran leadership and offensive prowess that the Cardinals desperately needed in order to make it into the playoffs that season.

And then there were the playoffs.  I know that 2011 will go down as the year of David Freese and rightfully so.  Freese had an amazing postseason, but while Freese was getting the headlines and highlight-worthy moments, Berkman was the man behind the scenes, allowing the younger Freese the opportunity to succeed.  Look no further than Game 6 of the World Series.  Everyone remembers the triple and the walk off homerun by David Freese, but it would be purely neglectful to skip over Berkman’s 3 for 5 night including 3 RBI’s and 4 runs scored.  In that game, Berkman had 3 RBIs with two outs, (one more than Freese had) including the most exciting single I have ever seen in the 10^th inning to retie the game after Josh Hamilton all but ripped the breath out of every pair of lungs in Busch Stadium.  I remember not being able to sleep after that game, and I still find chills run down my spine whenever I watch the highlights or even think of the game.  It really was the most exciting and amazing moment in Cardinals’ history, and the man in the middle of all of it was the same man who only a few short years earlier had been destroying the Cardinals at every turn for their biggest rivals. 

Berkman not only was amazing on the field, but he brought a sense of humor and looseness to the team that was so often lacking under Tony LaRussa.  Who could forget the post-game interviews after Game 6 when Freese brought up Jim Edmonds’ homerun to win a game in the 2004 NLCS, only to have Berkman add in his self-depreciating humor to remind everyone that he had been at that game too, on the losing side.  Since Berkman’s joining of the Cardinals, we have seen ugly sweater days and an interview with LaRussa after an NLCS game where he referred to a fictional Tortie and a Squirrel in the same sentence (and no, hell did not freeze over).   

Berkman’s career has had some bumps in it, mostly due to injuries, but we will always remember the extremely high level he performed at for so many years.  My lasting view of Berkman will not be him going down with a knee injury or any of the numerous big hits he had as an Astro to break my heart as a teenager.  The memory that I will always hold onto for the Big Puma is going to come from him after the last out of the 2011 World Series.  I can still see the bearded Berkman raising a stunned LaRussa into the air with an embrace strong enough to break ribs and the words “Can you believe it?”  I couldn’t at the time, and I still can’t believe it.  Lance Berkman, the last of the Killer B’s, a Cardinal forever.